Lloyds Banking Cuts 550 Jobs in Insurance and Consumer Units

The reductions are part of the 15,000 job losses Chief
Executive Officer Antonio Horta-Osorio announced in June 2011,
the London-based lender said in a statement today. Employees
affected were told today, the company said.

Horta-Osorio, 49, is seeking to strengthen Lloyds’s balance
sheet by selling assets, cutting costs and eliminating jobs.
Lloyds has cut more than 30,000 positions and closed overseas
units to focus on the U.K. since its 20 billion-pound ($30
billion) taxpayer rescue in 2008.

“Where it is necessary for employees to leave the company,
it will look to achieve this by offering voluntary redundancy,”
the bank said. “Compulsory redundancies will always be a last
resort.”